Stray Black Cats
by TheiaNeko
Summary: It only takes a glimpse for curiosity to take over the cat.


**Hello! This is a Valentine's Day Exchange fic for Lovelyblogtime on tumblr!**

 **For those who are following my other continuing works, I'm so sorry I haven't updated recently! I've been very busy working on Project Love Bug and now I'm entering university, so I'll become very busy very soon.**

 **I hope you all enjoy this!**

* * *

The first time Adrien noticed a small black mark on the back of Marinette's shoulder, he wasn't Adrien but Chat Noir. He had seen Marinette shrug on her jacket plenty of times before and never once laid eyes on the mark that he had all but caught a glimpse of.

He had sat still for a moment, watching the girl stride back and forth as she worked on a piece of clothing, wondering what the black mark could be. After getting nowhere, the cat boy dropped down through the hatch above her bed and gracefully swung over the railing on the second floor of her room and landed with a soft thud; barely enough noise to alert her parents below.

Marinette, however, did notice the stray that had entered her room, and with a piece of string in her mouth and gaze focused on her most recent project, she grunted in acknowledgment of his arrival.

"You know, Princess, working in the dark isn't healthy for your eyes," he purred, approaching her, intentions still surrounding the black mark on her shoulder. "Maybe you should wait until the sun is smiling down upon your beauty. That way you won't damage the seas I can get lost in so easily."

The blonde-haired boy heard Marinette yelp slightly in pain before she turned around to face him, a finger replacing the string in her mouth and a blush having spread across her face, accompanied by an unamused look.

"I want to get this finished," Marinette said, looking over the fabric to make sure there were no specs of blood on it before looking back at the superhero in her room, "but I keep getting distracted by this stray that insists on coming into my room at night." The blue-eyed girl before Chat huffed, a pout forming on her lower lip as she looked up at him.

Chat Noir put his hands up in mock surrender, a huge grin on his face as he took a step back. The girl had lost her excited facade once he had come to visit one too many times, and the green-eyed boy had been lucky to have his cat-like reflexes because, otherwise, the bag would have hit him right in the face.

Despite her size, the girl could throw with accuracy and weight. The blonde-haired boy had learned early on not to mess with Marinette. Ever. No matter what, he stuck to that one rule he had set for himself. Chat Noir would rather not go through all nine lives; though, spending them with his Marinette or his Lady wasn't such a bad idea.

Even though he had set the rule up for himself, this was the one time he was willing to cross it. One cat life was worth seeing what she had hidden under her jacket. Maybe even two.

"I just want to visit my Princess. Is there anything wrong with that?" He saw Marinette raise an eyebrow and peer at him from under her long lashes as she started to turn back to the coat thate had rested on her lap while the cat boy had taken her attention.

Picking up the string that had been placed upon the table while Chat Noir had taken her focus, Marinette went back to working on the coat. Now looking at it, the blonde-haired boy noticed that it was a green slightly paler than his eyes, similar to the colour that surrounded his eyes while he was Chat Noir.

Leaning closer at first to get a better look at the stitching and thought Marinette had put into the present for her friend, the cat found himself in a perfect position to be able to move the French-Asian girl's cardigan to be able to catch a larger glimpse of the black that adorned her shoulder.

What Chat wasn't expecting was for Marinette to spin around and have her face sitting inches away from his own. Her breath mixed with his, the fierce look in her eyes sending two kinds of shivers down his spine.

Chat Noir remembered why he shouldn't mess with Marinette. The girl gave off an air of strength. In moments like this, the blonde-haired boy felt like Marinette could take on anything. It also reminded him of why he had started hanging around her more. It had taken him months to find what drew him to the blue-eyed girl, and her strength had definitely been one of those characteristics.

"Chat Noir," Marinette whispered, and said boy froze at the mention of his name. She wasn't happy. "You need to stop breathing down my neck. I can't concentrate while you are peering over my shoulder." He saw her eyes soften as she breathed out, exhaustion suddenly filling her features.

"Sorry, kitty, do you mind if you leave early tonight? I-" she sighed. "I'm just really tired today." Chat Noir felt his ears flatten slightly at the sight of all the energy leaving his Princess within an instant.

Instead of complaining about the loss of her company, he moved his left hand around to his back and used his right to pick up one of Marinette's, placing his lips softly onto the back of her hand as he knelt down on his knee.

"Call on your Prince whenever you need me, Princess. I am but a call away." Chat Noir looked up to see Marinette as red as his Lady's suit. A small smile graced his lips as he turned towards her balcony. He wasn't completely oblivious to the effect he had on her nor was he oblivious to the effect she had on him.

He knew she meant a lot to him. Adrien would even go as far as to think- not say - that she meant the same to him as the lucky Lady he got to run with over the roofs of Paris during patrols and when they were fighting akuma.

What Chat Noir missed as he left was Marinette lifting her other hand to her mouth and staring at the spot her partner had pressed his lips, her blush deepening when Tikki came out from hiding and gave her charge the biggest grin the dark-haired girl had ever seen.

* * *

At school the next day, Adrien's eyes followed Marinette everywhere, hoping for an opportune moment to catch even a glimpse of the black mark that was still hidden beneath a cardigan.

Alas, his focus was cut off when Nino waved a hand in front of his face, and Adrien turned to his friend.

"Dude, you've been staring at Marinette non-stop since she got here. I've been calling your name for 2 minutes now," the DJ said, crossing his arms and raising a brow at the model. "We're in the same class. You'll see her once school starts, unless… You've got it bad?"

Adrien watched as Nino leaned closer to him, his eyebrows wiggling slightly as he nearly sung the last part of his sentence. Adrien felt himself lean farther and farther back the closer the DJ came.

"Wh-what do you mean? You know I like Ladybug!" The blond boy watched as his friend  
eyed him skeptically before the bell rang, signalling the start of their school day. Adrien let out a breath of relief that he hadn't known he was holding as Nino looked towards the sound.

"Come on then, dude. Let's get our butts to class before we get in trouble for being late." Nino punched Adrien in the arm lightly causing the model to let out a nervous chuckle. He wasn't sure what had made him so uncomfortable, but Adrien did know that he wanted to keep the black mark on Marinette's shoulder a secret. Unlike his superhero persona, this secret wasn't weighing down on his shoulders, but rather, the yearning to know what it was seemed to be an itch he needed to scratch.

It was one of many times Adrien had wished that he was the one sitting behind Marinette and  
not the other way around. Ever since he had started visiting her as Chat Noir, the feeling of wanting to watch her during class had intensified, and that day, the feeling had increased tenfold.

The blond boy found himself on more than one occasion turning to borrow something from Nino so he could glance at the dark-haired girl behind him out of the corner of his eye. The time was another thing Adrien found himself focusing on, counting down the hours, the minutes, the _seconds_ until lunch rolled around.

Then, _maybe_ , he could try and see the black mark that plagued his thoughts.

Before he knew it, the bell had rung, signalling their break, but instead of seeing the two girls behind him packing up, Adrien saw them flying out the door and away from the classroom.

Stunned by how quickly Alya and Marinette had fled the classroom, Adrien stood at his desk, hand frozen in mid-air and book in his grasp.

"Let's go then, dude! We don't want to lose them."

Adrien whipped his head around to see Nino smirking at him. The green-eyed boy squinted slightly at his friend, the DJ obviously having more going through his head than he was letting on. Nevertheless, he was right.

Adrien stuffed his books into his bag and took off from the classroom with a fresh burst of energy, ignoring the shout of the teacher behind him about not being allowed to run in classrooms. He had to catch up to Marinette; he was filled with determination. With Nino by his side, he would definitely be able to find the perfect moment to find out what exactly was on the blue-eyed girl's shoulder.

Adrien rushed down the stairs, looking both left and right in a search for the person of his interest. When he finally found her, she was near the road that separated their school and the bakery her parents owned.

The blond boy had heard tales of how the Dupain-Cheng family bakery made the food of the  
gods, especially their cookies, but Adrien had never had the pleasure of tasting them, much to his disdain. But there was no time to think of the unknown taste of their sweets. The boy was on a mission, and his curiosity would not be satisfied until he saw what was under her cardigan.

It was then he saw it: a suspicious looking man crossing the road, looking like he was headed straight for one of the two girls.

He needed to get to them as quickly as possible.

If Adrien was forced to protect them, he could just say it was linked into his fencing capabilities. He had everything covered.

Hopefully.

He jumped over the wall that sat on the edge of the stairs and started running towards them. But he was going to be too late. The man was too close. His eyes were trained on Marinette's small bag. Time seemed to slow down for the model.

Marinette's bag was going to be snatched. Adrien was rendered breathless when the man took hold of Marinette's bag, and in return, she grabbed his thumb and used the weakness of the extremity to move his arm around his back, manipulating the manoeuvre to also push the man to the floor.

The action caused Adrien to stop in his tracks, once again shocked at how fast his classmate could move. Since when was Marinette such a… _badass_?

"Oh! Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, I thought you were going to grab my bag, and I just- I'm very sorry!" Adrien watched as Marinette helped the man up and dusted him down, his face pale with shock. Clearly he hadn't expected the petite girl to be able to pin him to the floor and in the time she did it too.

"Dude, that was a case of badassery right there." He heard Nino say next to him, the boy slightly puffed from running up to Adrien. It was no secret that Nino wasn't the fittest teenage boy. He spent most of his days practicing music, not running around being a superhero.

Adrien hummed in agreement, awe filling his entire being as he jogged over to the two girls, Nino hot on his tail. He reached them as the man staggered off, the shock still prominent in his system.

"Are you two okay?" he asked, putting a hand on Marinette's shoulder, his eyes focused entirely on his blue-eyed classmate. As soon as Adrien came into her personal bubble, the green-eyed boy was the centre of her focus. She was ecstatic that he had come over to make sure she was alright.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Both of them being too absorbed in each other, they didn't notice the look shared between Nino and Alya.

Suddenly, Adrien noticed the shoulder of Marinette's cardigan. It had been ripped and quite severely at that. Following his line of sight, Marinette let out a small sigh and removed the over garment, taking the time to study the damage done to her beloved piece of clothing.

This was it, this was when Adrien could finally see what the black mark was.

"Marinette, is your cardigan okay?" He heard Alya ask. Marinette turned to her friend, moving her torso just enough so that Adrien could see the very edge of the black spot that had plagued his thoughts all day.

Before she could respond to Alya's question - causing Adrien to cringe internally because he tended to dislike interrupting people - his own curiosity slipped out, inquiring about the object that adorned Marinette's shoulder.

"What's that on your shoulder, Marinette?" Adrien watched as Marinette's eyes widened in shock before she let out a nervous giggle and rubbed the back of her head.

"Uh, it's a drawing," she started explaining. "Manon was over the other day, and Nathanaël came into the bakery when she was nagging me to get a tattoo. So Nath offered and now I have this semi-permanent tattoo on my shoulder for the time being." As she talked, Marinette turned around to show him the mark.

Adrien's day just seemed to be filled with events that shocked him to the core.

On her shoulder was a black cat with a ladybug on its nose.

At her friends' silence, Marinette continued, "Manon is a Ladybug and Chat Noir fan, and I've recently become quite fond of black cats myself, as a stray keeps finding himself at my house, so, I agreed to it."

Adrien heard her voice soften as she referred to the black stray cat.

She was referring to _him_.

"I-It's nice," he told her. Marinette turned back to her friends, a small smile on her face, accompanied by a slight blush that dusted her cheeks.

"Yeah, it's gorgeous, girl! Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Alya nearly sung, clearly very excited to see Marinette take some kind of interest in Paris' superhero duo.

Marinette giggled slightly and shrugged her shoulders before her attention moved back to her cardigan.

"I'm sorry, but I really want to fix this up as soon as I can. I'll see you guys back at school!" With those final words, the dark-haired girl ran off leaving a stunned Adrien behind.

* * *

That night, Marinette was visited by a very happy stray black cat.


End file.
